Holidaze

Ohhhhh, it’s a comin’! The season! The season where you sit at the table at your staff meeting and everyone furrows their brows and tries to figure out how to shoehorn one more event into the church calendar, and you talk about poinsettia placement and covers for Christmas Eve programs and you remember that you forgot to hire the trumpet player for the 7pm service but that’s probably okay, as the Murray’s talented son Jonah will be back from college by then and you’re sure he’ll be happy to play the saxophone, and who doesn’t love a good sax rendition of “Hail Mary” as they’re heading out into the cold?

Get ready, giblets! ‘Cause it’s a comin’.

Now would be a good time to get your suit to the dry cleaner, shine up your boots and make sure you have one wool coat that doesn’t have dog hair on it. Round up at least one pair of decent gloves and check on your umbrella and snow brush stash if you’re in a cold climate. These are things you need to have ready to go should you be called upon to do a funeral this season, and with everyone else you have going on, you do not want to have to get your black suit to the dry cleaner on a freezing Thursday night when the world is out doing last minute shopping.

So do that now, and keep that one pristine outfit on reserve and ready to go. This means ironing or pressing the shirt now. (It means that I need to take my good leather gloves to the special place that can clean them and repair the snap that’s hanging by a thread).

Now is also the time to shine up a nice pair of Sunday morning preaching shoes and bring them to the office. Won’t you be glad you have them there when you want to wear your UGGS or fleece-lined LL Bean boots to church and not have to schlep a separate pair of shoes with you? Choose a style of shoes that goes with your robe and wear them every Sunday. I personally believe that lug soles have no place whatsoever on the feet of anyone who is leading a worship service in a robe. That is a proclamation. I just decided. It’s a shame, too, because SO many cute shoes have lug soles nowadays! But I just can’t wear them for worship. They’re great for running around in any other day of the week, but not with the vestments. Just non.

I bet you have a ton of unusual events to attend this time of year, amirite? Me, too! Appreciation parties for social justice organizations, special holiday concerts and celebrations of solstice at church, inter-faith get togethers, holiday parties that the church puts on for a social services agency in the city, breakfasts for other social service agencies, all manner of interesting calendar items.

Speaking of calendar items, do you hate the fact that the noun “calendar” has become a verb now? CALENDARING. I spend a good deal of Monday morning and quite a bit of Thursday CALENDARING.

CALENDARING.
Dear Lord.

Back on topic! How to ease into December without having it become a four-week period where we’re skidding in and out of the house in a kind of Bugs Bunny hysteria of dressing and undressing, shoving foods into our faces (you know darn well that you have often skidded into your home going, “Give me the foods! I don’t care what it is! I just have to have the foods before my next thing!”), chucking piles of mail at our desks (and missing) and kissing neglected children, partners and pets?

Take a day of preparation. Because: ADVENT, right? Preparation. Before you formally and liturgically prepare your heart and your congregation to celebrate the birth of the holy child, it’s really fine to prepare your own home, body, pantry and closet so that you can be in the season of Advent in a spiritual way. Don’t cheat yourself of this, my dear pigeons. Please make the time. Take a day or two out of the office to do it. Get your study cleared up, your financial affairs in order, your quilts washed and your refrigerator pitched of all the funny-smelling stuff that’s growing fuzz. You are charged with the spiritual care of a people who are being shaken in the jaws of the great consumer monster, and if you are to fulfill your obligations to them with groundedness and integrity, it will require advance planning and intentionality.

Some ideas:

Make a big crock-pot of soup and freeze it in gallon bags for easy dinners (just microwave the bags in a big bowl or defrost all day in the fridge).

Swap with a friend or neighbor: they do your holiday decorating, you do some gardening for them in the spring or summer. Negotiate what works for you.

Pencil in some movie nights between now and New Year. No, not pencil. PEN them in. Do it now or you’ll wind up at another event.

Start taking immunity-enhancing supplements now. I add elderberry syrup to my smoothie this time of year, and I regularly take Umcka Cold Care.

Cook with warming herbs like ginger and pepper and tumeric.

The cold and busyness will tempt you to drink more coffee. Swap some of that out for green tea.

Schedule a massage.

Ask for help now. Think ahead. What are you usually freaking out over by December 19th or so? Cards? Gifts? The house? Move other things around so you have the time to get done what you really feel must get done, or else decide to SKIP IT. Decide now, and let it go. Life will go on.

Don’t be a control freak. Make room for lay leaders to make the sacred happen. Oh, and God. God might have a little something to do with whatever blessings and goodness come upon you and your communities this season, just a little bit.

In fact, don’t do anything else until you read this. It’s beautiful and it’s just what your Auntie PeaceBang is trying to tell you: get your shoes shined, press your suit and get your pantyhose supply in order, and let God into your ministry more and more every day. Okay?

No go be beautiful.